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SCC: Millville: Hopwood, Burrows qualifying notes

Hopwood Gets First Laps at NNJ @Best birthday present would have been a clean lap Millville, NJ (30 August, 2008)--Trevor Hopwood finally got some laps in at New Jersey Motorsports Park in the No. 76 Fischer Skis Compass360 Racing Acura TSX as ...

Edited: Dec 21, 2009, 5:26 AM

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Hopwood Gets First Laps at NNJ @Best birthday present would have been a clean lap

Millville, NJ (30 August, 2008)--Trevor Hopwood finally got some laps in at New Jersey Motorsports Park in the No. 76 Fischer Skis Compass360 Racing Acura TSX as he strapped in for one of the most pressure-filled sessions of the race weekend to get his first flying tour of the 2.25-mile circuit in KONI Challenge ST Class qualifying on Saturday.

Thursday's promoter test session was cancelled after a practice accident, and Friday saw a motor let go on Hopwoods first lap out, keeping him from getting any seat time on the 2.25-mile circuit before Saturday.

Hopwood, who is celebrating his birthday today, is fast at making friends and just as as fast when it comes to learning the quick way around a new race track. But despite the pace that the 2007 KONI Challenge Champion has, he was dealt a tough hand when it came to traffic during the 15-minute session and he was forced to emerge with 25th on the ST class grid.

One feature of the brand-new circuit is that the areas off the pavement are pure dist and construction dirt, meaning that when a car spins off course, a huge wall of dust makes for a curtain of zero visibility, an interesting tidbit of information that unfortunately became relevant during Hopwood's qualifying run.

"I gave myself a gap at the end of the session after getting a couple of laps in to get feel for the track, but I got hosed on my flyer when those cars went off in front of me," said Hopwood. "Everyone backed out of it until we got through the cloud, and that cost me at least one second. But to never be on this track before, and to have a car that didn't have a working motor yesterday, we're happy to at least be back on track and ready for the race tomorrow. Hopefully our weekend will get better from here. I think Compass360 has a pretty aggressive strategy in mind for the race, so we are focused on moving up at the green and coming out of here with a solid finish."

-credit: sgm

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